In the last few weeks, we’ve been hearing about how our Government has a great coronavirus pandemic plan. The message Prime Minister Ardern has been trying to convey is Don’t worry, we’ve got this covered. We’re sorted. You can trust us.
The truth is a little different.
Yes, we have a pandemic plan. Here is a link to it: New Zealand influenza pandemic plan. As you can see, it is dated 2017, so it’s at least three years old. It was created and last updated under the National Government. It doesn’t look like it has been touched since.
Apart from the Pandemic Plan, there are even older documents on the Civil Defence website, dating back to 2006, located here. They look reasonably useful, if you don’t actually want to get anything done or prepare for your own safety and wellbeing in any way, and want to sit around having a politically correct talkfest instead.
The Pandemic Plan itself looks like it was created in a bit of a rush, and National didn’t do a particularly good job of it. There are numerous spelling and grammatical errors, and much of the document is repetition, fluff and filler.
The first dozen or so pages of the Pandemic Plan are primarily an overview, but it is clear that the previous government at least were aware of the risk of a pandemic and were vaguely planning for it:
“The Ministry of Health began a period of ‘accelerated’ pandemic planning in 2005 because of increased national and international concern about the risk posed by pandemic influenza. This concern has been reinforced by experience with SARS, the threat of influenza A (H5N1) and influenza A (H1N1) 2009.”
The NZ Influenza Plan (“NZIPAP”), p 13.
Yes, they were aware. Then this document was created. Then…crickets.
On that same page (page 13 of the NZIPAP), the document talks about a “Pandemic Influenza Technical Advisory Group”. Where is this group now, and why did they not update the document in the years following 2017?
It appears this group may have been disbanded by the current Ardern Government if not before. From what I can see, no work appears to have been done since this document was created. I cannot find any dates more recent than in 2017.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR NEW ZEALANDERS?
It means that we’re on our own, pretty much. Our Government was not prepared, and this virus caught the Prime Minister with her pants down – not something I want to visualise.
We can rely on our Government to do nothing but enforce their rules, and any rules that they do enforce have likely been been pulled out of thin air over the last few weeks without any thought or consideration. The result will be scattershot, poorly considered, and generally a bit of a mess.
The results of all this on our democracy and economy long term remain to be seen, after everything is done. However, I would argue that one lesson can be learned from this: Don’t rely on the Government to save you. It won’t. It can’t even get organised enough to save itself.
Rely on yourself, your family and your community. You’re likely far more organised than the Prime Minister is.
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